Research Paper

Author:

Telmo Móia

Universidade de Lisboa, PT

Abstract

This paper deals with the diversity of temporal and spatial phrases – mainly those headed by prepositions or preposition-like connectives – that convey locating information or involve mere temporal/spatial reference. It shows that the different subclasses are quite heterogeneous in Portuguese, and exhibit interesting, syntactically complex, patterns. A certain degree of instability in their use, likely indicative of linguistic change (mainly in Standard European Portuguese), is illustrated through the use of corpora examples. English data is often used for comparison. The formal framework underlying the linguistic analyses is Discourse Representation Theory (cf. Kamp & Reyle 1993).

Previous work on Portuguese temporal phrases (e.g. Móia 2000, 2001) has
emphasized the issue of categorial diversity within this class, claiming that
– when temporal location and temporal reference are considered – two
major distinct, though interrelated, subclasses need be distinguished: (i) temporal
locating adjuncts, which are used to associate eventualities with time intervals,
asserting when things happened; (ii) time-denoting expressions, which are used
simply to identify, or denote, time intervals. The former class is prototypically
exemplified by prepositional phrases headed by em
(‘in’), as in (1); the second, by nominal phrases as o
século XX (‘the 20th century’), as in (2):

(1)

O Paulo casou em 1990.

the Paulo married in 1990

‘Paulo got married in 1990.’

(2)

O século XX foi palco de grandes acontecimentos.

the century XX was stage of great events

‘The 20th century was a stage for great
events.’

A parallel distinction is relevant in the spatial domain, as underlined by Móia
(2001: 47). Thus, spatial locating
phrases – as em Londres (‘in London’), in
o Paulo casou em Londres (‘Paulo got married in
London’) – differ from space-denoting expressions – as a
Inglaterra (‘England’), in a Inglaterra foi palco
de grandes acontecimentos (‘England was a stage for great
events’).

From a semantic point of view, temporal/spatial locating adjuncts are used to locate
eventualities (ev) in time intervals (t) or spaces/areas (a), that is, in a formal
framework like Discourse Representation Theory (cf. Kamp & Reyle 1993) – and using the conventional notation in
brackets above –, they are assumed to contribute relational DRS-conditions,
such as [ev ⊆ t/a], [t/a ⊆ ev], [ev O t/a] to the interpretation of the
sentences in which they occur. The relevant temporal/spatial locating entities are,
of course, defined within the adjunct itself (e.g. by the complement of the locating
preposition em – cf. Móia 2000: 89–92). Time/space-denoting expressions, on the
other hand, are used simply to identify, or denote, time intervals or spaces/areas.
As such, they have a referential function comparable to that of NPs like
esta cadeira (‘this chair’), or esse
terramoto (‘that earthquake’), for common objects and
eventualities, respectively. In the same framework, these expressions can be
regarded as contributing relatively simpler DRS-conditions, of the form [DENOTING
EXPRESSION (t/a)] (often, a reducible condition – cf. Móia 2000: 206–218), to the interpretation of the
sentences in which they occur.

From a distributional point of view, the two subclasses at stake are also very
different, an aspect which is crucial for the purposes of the present paper. More
precisely, locating phrases occur in adjunct positions, both strictly adverbial and
adnominal, as in (3) and (4), respectively:

(3)

O Paulo casou {em 1990 / em Londres}.

the Paulo married in 1990 / in London

‘Paulo got married in 1990 / in London.’

(4)

o casamento do Paulo {em 1990 / em Londres}

the wedding of-the Paulo in 1990 / in London

‘Paulo’s wedding in 1990 / in London’

Denoting expressions, on the other hand, occur in nominal (including
post-prepositional) positions, like the following four (listed in Móia 2000: 158–159; Móia 2011a: 408): (i) subject position
– cf. (5); (ii) complement of an argumental preposition, as
de or para – cf. (6); (iii) complement
of a non-argumental temporal preposition, within an adjunct, as até
a or desde – cf. (7); (iv) complement of a
non-argumental preposition (de), within a nominal modifier or
appositive – cf. (8).

Móia (2000) also underlines that some
Portuguese phrases can occur with the same surface form in both adjunct and nominal
contexts. These (apparently) ambivalent expressions therefore act both
as locating adjuncts and as denoting expressions, depending on the context.
Relatively simple examples are hoje (‘today’),
esta semana (‘this week’) or aqui
(‘here’), whose occurrence in adjunct and nominal positions is
exemplified in (11) and (12), respectively.

(11)

O Paulo casou {hoje / esta semana / aqui}.

the Paulo married today / this week /
here

‘Paulo got married {today / this week /
here}.’

(12)

a.

O problema não data de {hoje / esta semana}.

the problem not dates of today / this week

‘It’s not a problem of {today / the current
week}.’

b.

Os quadros foram trazidos para aqui.

the paintings were brought to here

‘The paintings were brought here.’

The ambivalence of comparable English or French phrases has, of course, been noted
before in the literature (cf. e.g. the observations in Asher et al. 1995: 109 about the behaviour of
French hier, or those in Kamp &
Reyle 1993: 623 about English last N-phrases).

The hypothesis Móia (2000) advocates, in
order to account for the double behaviour of these expressions without resorting to
double categorisation, is to postulate a null locating preposition (with the
semantic value of em) in adjunct position, as portrayed in (13).
Ambivalent expressions are then always analysable as mere time/space-denoting
expressions.

(13)

O Paulo casou Øem {hoje / esta semana / aqui}.

the Paulo married Øintoday / this week / here

‘Paulo got married Øin {today / this week /
here}.’

In favour of this analysis, he notes (among many other things – cf. e.g. Móia 2000: 159–161, 179–182;
Móia 2001: 46–47) that some
ambivalent phrases – like Portuguese a semana passada
(‘last week’) – allow for an explicit locating preposition
(em), but only in adjunct position1:

(14)

O Paulo casou (n)a semana passada.

the Paulo married (in)-the week past

‘Paulo got married last week.’

As for prepositional phrases, the same author notes that some of them – like
those headed by temporal antes (‘before’), or, I add
here, spatial dentro (‘inside’) – exhibit the
same ambivalent behaviour of hoje (‘today’) or
aqui (‘here’). These phrases can, in fact, occur
both in adjunct – cf. (15) – and in (most) nominal contexts – cf.
(16) –, and therefore, in adjunct position, a null locating preposition is
also postulated.

(15)

A estátua foi restaurada Øem {antes da
guerra / dentro da igreja}.

the statue was restored Øin before
of-the war / inside of-the church

‘The statue was restored Øin {before
the war / inside the church}.’

(16)

a.

O problema data de antes da guerra.

the problem dates of before of-the war

‘The problem dates from before the war.’

b.

A estátua foi trazida para dentro da igreja.

the statue was brought to inside of-the church

‘The statue was brought into the church.’

c.

os problemas de antes da guerra

the problems of before of-the war

‘the problems from before the war’

d.

os azulejos de dentro da igreja

the tiles of inside of-the church

‘the tiles inside the church’

The possibility of combining temporal prepositions in this type of sequences has been
mentioned for English as well – cf. e.g. references to since
before or until after, in D.C. Bennett (1970: 280–281) and Declerck (1991: 288), or since…
ago, in Móia (2003:
53–54). Declerck (1991), in
particular, contemplates a similar type of null preposition-analysis for adverbial
before and after (though he does not elaborate
on it): “perhaps we can even consider before/after
the war as a reduction from something like at
(a time) before/after the
war” (op. cit., apudMóia 1998: 3–4, fn. 6).

A corollary of the facts described so far is that temporal/spatial prepositions (and,
for that matter, comparable connectives, like complex prepositions, conjunctions, or
grammaticalized verb forms like há – cf. Móia 2011a) fall into two main
syntactic-semantic categories, as given in Table 1 below: on the one hand, heads of temporal/spatial locating adjuncts,
like em; on the other hand, heads of time/space-denoting
expressions, like antes or dentro. They are
distinguished – as already said – both by their syntactic distribution
and their semantic interpretation.

HEADS OF TEMPORAL/SPATIAL LOCATING ADJUNCTS

HEADS OF TIME/SPACE DENOTING EXPRESSIONS

nominal contexts

CREATING AMBIVALENT PHRASES

CREATING NON-AMBIVALENT PHRASES

Syntactic distribution of the phrases they
head

adverbial/adnominal contexts

(i.e. combined with a null preposition in
adverbial/adnominal contexts)

(i.e. combined with an explicit preposition in
adverbial/adnominal contexts)

This table expands Móia’s (2000)
work by integrating two new features: (i) inclusion of spatial (besides temporal)
connectives – and (ii) further subdivision of the heads of denoting
expressions, setting apart the distributionally ambivalent and non-ambivalent cases,
a topic that will be explored in section 2. Furthermore, in section 3, a
reassessment of the class of true locating connectives (as portrayed in the table
below) will be made, which shows that it intriguingly possesses a great deal of
inner diversity, not yet explored in the literature, to my knowledge.

Before moving on, I will add a new syntactic context that is also worthy of
consideration for the aims of this paper: the combination with time/space hypernyms,
like período/área, in examples like (17)
and (18), where the temporal span or spatial area identified by the whole NP is
co-extensive with the one identified by the sequence following the hypernym.

(17)

o período {de / *em / depois de} o Natal

the period of / in / after of the Christmas

‘the Christmas period / *the period in Christmas / the period
after Christmas’

(18)

a área {de / *em / dentro de} a casa

the area of / in / inside of the house

‘the house area / *the area in the house / the area inside the
house’

Though (arguably) not exactly nominal, this context has comparable properties, in
that it does not allow the prototypical locating connective em
(cf., however, footnote 4), while it allows for heads of time/space-denoting
expressions like antes or dentro (besides the
typical preposition for noun modifiers, de).

2. Subdiving complex time/space-denoting expressions

In this section, I will analyse the class of complex time/space-denoting expressions,
headed by prepositional (or similar) connectives, and show that they come in two
different groups, this further subdivision being more relevant for spatial
expressions than for temporal ones, as will be shown.

2.1. Ambivalent complex time/space-denoting expressions

Let us start with the subset of (apparently) ambivalent complex phrases, that is,
those that occur with the same surface form both in nominal and (in combination
with a null locating preposition) in adjunct positions.

As for temporal phrases, these correspond to a relatively large set (cf. Móia 2000). It includes sequences
headed by connectives antes de (‘before’),
depois de (‘after’), após
(‘after’), entre (‘between’),
quando (‘when’), and – in combination
with predicates of amounts of time (X-TIME) –
há/havia [X-TIME] (‘[X-TIME] ago’,
‘[X-TIME] before’), dentro de [X-TIME]
(‘[X-TIME] from now’), de Y a
[X-TIME] (‘[X-TIME] from Y’), [X-TIME] antes de
(‘[X-TIME] before’), [X-TIME] depois de
(‘[X-TIME] after’), [X-TIME] após
(‘[X-TIME] after’), and the like. As said, they are all ambivalent
and readily appear in adjunct position, with a null locating preposition.
Furthermore, they often occur in nominal contexts, as witnessed by the following
excerpts from the corpus (of Portuguese newspaper texts)
CETEMPúblico. Glosses (in these corpora examples, as in any others
henceforth) are provided just for the relevant (highlighted) part of the
excerpt.

Though English is not my object language, a similar behaviour of comparable
English connectives is easily documented, as in the following examples, taken
from the Corpus of Contemporary American English: «Lawyer John Henry Browne
said Robert Bales remembers some details from before and after the
killings (…).» (Associated Press, 2012); «What she
found were over 26,000 artifacts dating to between 1840 and
1876.» (Archaeology, 2011); «That reinforced earlier
bad feelings from when he dropped the proposed “public
option” for a government plan to compete with private insurance as
part of the health care overhaul.» (Associated Press, 2011);
«Until moments ago people were still being rescued
from atop the twin towers.» (ABC_2020, 1993).

As for spatial phrases, these correspond to a smaller, though still considerably
large set, headed by connectives like dentro de
(‘inside’), fora de (‘ouside’),
perto de (‘near’, ‘close to’),
junto de (‘beside’, ‘next to’), and
the like. Again, they readily occur in adjunct position, as locating phrases
(with a null locating preposition), and in nominal position, as mere
space-denoting expressions. See the following examples from
CETEMPúblico:

Comparable English examples from the Corpus of Contemporary American English are:
«The video then cuts to inside the bomber’s
car.» (CNN_YourWorld, 2006); «[Hamas] was potentially guilty
of a war crime by firing from next to the UN school
(…).» (Commentary, 2009).

Now, this group of (apparently) ambivalent spatial phrases includes a few
remarkable and rather unique elements in Portuguese (that seem to have no
comparable temporal examples). I will mention three especially common ones,
though possibly others exist. These are particularly complex sequences –
headed by por cima de, para trás de and
detrás de – that, despite integrating an initial
preposition (por, para, de), followed by another complex
preposition (cima de or trás de), work as
a (lexicalized) grammatical unit. In particular, the initial preposition is an
element no longer amenable to compositional analysis. The following
CETEMPúblico excerpts illustrate the use of these three phrases as locating
sequences, in adjunct position (where they combine with yet another, null
locating, preposition), and as space-denoting expressions, in nominal
position.

2.2. Non-ambivalent complex time/space-denoting expressions

The most common time-denoting expressions headed by prepositional (or similar)
connectives – listed in the preceding section – are all ambivalent
(occurring with the same surface form in adjunct and in nominal positions). No
indisputably prepositional temporal connectives seem to behave non-ambivalently,
requiring an explicit locating connective (e.g. em) in adjunct
contexts. There are, however, a few examples, of temporal phrases headed by
complex nominal-based expressions – e.g. meados de
(‘middle of’) and finais de (‘end
of’)3 – that behave in this
way:

(35)

O quadro foi pintado em meados do século XV.

the painting was painted in middlePLURAL of-the
century XV

‘This painting was painted in the middle of the
15th century.’

(36)

O quadro data de meados do século XV.

the painting dates of middlePLURAL of-the century
XV

‘This painting dates from the middle of the 15th
century.’

(37)

Este partido foi criado em finais do século passado.

this party was created in endPLURAL of-the
century past

‘This party was created at the end of last
century.’

(38)

É uma técnica conhecida desde finais do século
XV.

[it] is a technique known since endPLURAL of-the
century XV

‘It’s a technique (that has been) known since the end of
the 15th century.’

Now, if we assume that sequences like these are on a grammaticalizing path (cf.
e.g. Hopper & Traugott 1993) –
albeit at its initial stage – towards a complex preposition-status (cf.
Fagard & Mulder’s 2007
observations on old and middle French en/ou milieu de), their
place in Table 1 would be justified.

What is interesting to note is that the parallel group of (non-ambivalent
complex) spatial phrases has a much wider range, and includes extremely common
elements, which are – furthermore – indisputably prepositional, as
acknowledged even in traditional Portuguese grammars. This fact constitutes a
noteworthy asymmetry between temporal and spatial expressions.

In fact, complex spatial phrases that have a different form when used as locating
expressions (in adjunct contexts) – with an explicit locating preposition,
em or a – and as denoting
expressions (in nominal contexts), includes elements as common as
(a)trás de (‘behind’),
(a) a frente de (‘in front
of’), (em) cima de
(‘above’), (em) baixo de
(‘below’), (a)o lado de
(‘beside’), and the like. Note that the parenthesised preposition
(em, a) appears to be, still today, an autonomous
grammatical element (though it is, in some cases, prone to grammaticalization
– cf. Lima’s 2014:
178–179 observations on acima de, or the
examples concerning atrás de in Brazilian Portuguese
below). Here are some CETEMPúblico examples, with phrases headed by
(em) cima de and
(a)trás de in adjunct and in nominal
positions:

Many of these spatial connectives have distributional idiosyncrasies that might
be taken as signs of grammaticalization into complex prepositions. I will
mention two, that, moreover, distinguish them from their temporal counterparts
in the ambivalent group (e.g. antes de):

(i) they do not occur in direct combination with space hypernyms (in the type of
construction described before), but rather require a locating preposition in
that context – (44a) (vs. (44b) and (43)); however, most combine, via the
preposition de, with the hypernym-like noun
parte (‘part’) – (45)

the part of {behind /
the front /above
/below/ the side}
of-the building

(ii) at least those that do not have a definite article at the beginning –
namely, trás de, cima de and baixo de
– only occur in contemporary Portuguese in post-prepositional positions,
not in e.g. subject or direct object positions (cf. also footnote 3) –
(47); I will leave a more thorough analysis of these grammatical properties for
further investigation

(46)

Antes de ser eleito presidente foi o período em que viveu mais
feliz.

before of be elected president was the period in which [he]
lived more happy

(47)

*Trás da igreja é a área que precisa de uma
intervenção mais urgente.

behind of-the church is the area that needs of an
intervention more urgent

Additionally, the assignment of complex spatial expressions to the ambivalent or
non-ambivalent classes reveals some amount of variation, evincive of linguistic
change. For instance, European and Brazilian Portuguese seem to differ in what
concerns the use (and therefore the categorisation) of atrás
de-phrases. Whereas in Standard European Portuguese, they are
systematically associated with adjunct positions only, in Brazilian Portuguese,
they also appear in nominal contexts – cf. (48). This is, of course, an
indication that the element a (in atrás)
has been grammaticalized in these Brazilian Portuguese sequences, where it is no
longer interpreted as a locating (autonomously computed) preposition.

retreated to (at-)behind of-the goalkeepers; takes… to
(at-)behind of a wall; be towed… to (at-)behind of-the
breaking of-the waves

No examples of atrás de following prepositions were found
in the Portuguese corpus CETEMPúblico (which does not necessarily mean that
they may not appear in more informal registers), in contrast with more than 20
examples in the Brazilian corpora NILC-São Carlos and Corpus Brasileiro, v.
2.3. Furthermore, no examples of e.g. para ao lado de, para à
frente de, para em baixo/cima de were found in any of the three
corpora. The autonomy of the preposition em, in Portuguese
sequences like em cima de, therefore contrasts with the
dependency of its Spanish counterpart en, in encima
de, which occurs, as a fully incorporated non-autonomous element,
in e.g. por encima de (cf. Honrubia 1998: 80).

3. Heterogeneity within the class of (temporal) locating connectives

Let us now move to the class of truly temporal locating connectives, which include,
according to Móia (2000), the following
members (cf. Table 1 above):
em (‘in’, ‘on’, ‘at’),
a (‘in’, ‘on’, ‘at’),
durante (‘during’), ao longo de
(‘throughout’), enquanto (‘while’),
desde (‘since’), a partir de
(‘from’), até (a)
(‘until’, ‘by’), de… a/até
(‘from… to’) and desde… até
(from… until’). What I will try to show in this section is that this is,
after all, a somewhat heterogeneous class, whose exact boundaries are possibly in
need of some revision.

In fact, research in corpora (discussed below) reveals a relatively complex picture,
with these connectives displaying a rather intricate syntactic pattern: though the
phrases they head behave primarily as adjuncts, they exhibit (more or less)
vestigial traits of time-denoting expressions, which are possible signs of
linguistic change. Symptomatically, some of these traits – namely those with
the connective durante (‘during’), which will be
explored in section 3.2 – are associated with marginal or anomalous corpora
cases (with varying degrees of anomaly, from slight to severe anomaly). In other
words, the use of locating connectives appears to be a “critical area”
– in the sense of Peres & Móia (1995) – in contemporary Standard European Portuguese.

Let us consider each connective separately, since their properties vary a great
deal.

3.1. Em

As said before, preposition em (‘in’,
‘on’, ‘at’) can be regarded as the prototypical temporal
locating connective. In fact, it has all the properties of locating connectives
and only these, namely it never occurs in nominal (or nominal-like)
contexts4 – cf. (49). The less
frequent, and semantically more specific, temporal connectives
a (‘in’, ‘on’, ‘at’)
– in e.g. o Paulo nasceu a 10 de Dezembro de 1985
(‘Paulo was born on December 10, 1985.’) – and ao
longo de (‘throughout’5) seem to behave similarly.

(49)

a.

*Gosto muito do período no Natal. [OK: o período
do Natal]

[I] like a-lot of-the period in-the Christmas [OK:
the period of-the Christmas]

b.

*Na década de 1980 foi um período muito conturbado.

in-the decade of 1980 was a period very
turbulent

c.

*As leis de na década de 1980 eram muito injustas.

the laws of in-the decade of 1980 were very
unfair

d.

*A entrada em vigor da lei foi adiada para em 2016.

the entrance in force of-the law was postponed for in
2016

e.

*A lei estará em vigor até em 2016. [até ≡
‘until’]

the law will-be in force until in 2016

All other connectives classified by Móia (2000) as temporal locating occur in a very limited number of nominal
contexts (see Table 2, in section
3.9).

connectives

nominal contexts

complement of temporal prepositions (e.g.
desde, até)

in subject position

complement of de (in nominal
modifiers/appositives)

complement of argumental prepositions

complement of durative verbs (e.g.
durar)

with time hypernyms
(período)

em

−

−

−

−

−

−

durante

−

−

−1

−1

−1

−

enquanto

−

?

??

−

+

?

desde

−

−

−

−

+

+

a partir de

−

−

−

+

−

+

até

−

?

+

+

+

+

de…a/até,
desde…até

−

+

+2

+3

+

+

Table 2

Use of temporal locating connectives in nominal or nominal-like contexts
(possibly as heads of complex time-denoting expressions).

(1) a few anomalous cases found in corpora

(2) always with elimination of the first element of the
discontinuous connective

(3) often with elimination of the first element of the
discontinuous connective; marginally, no elimination may take place
(e.g. marcar para de… a)

[I] like a-lot of-the period during the holidays
[OK: the period of-the holidays]

b.

*Durante a ditadura foi um período muito conturbado.

during the dictatorship was a period very
turbulent

c.

*As leis de durante a ditadura eram muito injustas.

the laws of during the dictatorship were very
unfair

d.

*A entrada em vigor da lei foi adiada para durante o ano de
2016.

the entrance into force of-the law was postponed for during
the year 2016

e.

*A lei estará em vigor até durante o ano de 2016.
[até ≡ ‘until’]

the law will-be in force until during the year
2016

However, corpora show that the use of durante is somewhat
unstable, and different from em to a certain extent. Namely, it
occurs – though in non-standard constructions – in two unexpected
situations: (i) in nominal contexts, as head of time-denoting expressions; (ii)
explicitly, rather than implicitly, in adjunct position before ambivalent
prepositional phrases.

would-last during all the conference of Hague;
lasted only during the first quarter of-the
game; last during the rest of the process of
peace

As for the use of explicit (rather than implict) durante before
ambivalent complex time-denoting expressions in adjunct position, I found 5
examples in CETEMPúblico9: 3 (marginal)
cases before entre – cf. (56); 1 (very marginal) case
before quando – cf. (57); 1 (to me, totally
ungrammatical) case before antes – cf. (58). These
sequences would be perfectly acceptable either by suppressing the preposition
durante or by using the more periphrastic construction
(with a time hypernym) durante o período (entre /
em que / antes):

Note that the number of non-standard constructions found in the corpus
CETEMPúblico (16) is extremely low, taking into account that
durante is one of the most common words in Portuguese (it
ranks 318th in the list provided by Nascimento
et al. 1987: 689–718), occurring 135821
times in CETEMPúblico (approximately 70 % of which are of the relevant
type10).

3.3. Enquanto

Phrases with enquanto (‘while’) take sentences that
represent non-punctual eventualities as complements (cf. e.g. Alves 2003: 130); these embedded sentences
determine the location time of the matrix sequence.
Enquanto-phrases may occur, though somewhat marginally, in
subject position – cf. (59) – and in combination with time hypernyms
– cf. (60); no examples of these constructions were found in the corpus
CETEMPúblico.

the law was in force since while the socialists were in-the
government until to-the last year

3.4. Desde

Phrases with desde (‘since’) define location
intervals by fixing their lower bound via (nominal or sentential) complements.
In most cases, the upper bound of the location interval coincides with the
temporal perspective point of the sentence, that is,
desde-phrases normally act as deictic/anaphoric expressions.
They occur grammatically in combination with time hypernyms, as witnessed by the
following CETEMPúblico examples:

3.5. A partir de

Phrases with the complex preposition a partir de (‘from
[… onwards]’, literally ‘to start/leave from’) are
semantically similar to desde, inasmuch as both define location
intervals by fixing their lower bound via their complements. They differ
syntactically in that a partir de only takes nominal
complements, and semantically in that a partir de does not
normally impose any restriction on the upper bound of the location interval
(which is often left undefined). Both phrases with desde and
a partir de occur grammatically in combination with time
hypernyms – cf. (64) above and (69) below; the latter, contrary to the
former, though, may also be used after argumental prepositions (namely
para) – cf. (70).

planned for to start of-the next month;
planned for to start of tomorrow

The other three nominal contexts mentioned before seem impossible for this
complex connective:

(71)

*A partir de 1955 tem sido um período muito conturbado.

to start of 1955 has been a period very
turbulent

(72)

*As leis de a partir de 1955 têm sido muito pouco
eficazes.

the laws of to start of 1955 have been very little
effective

(73)

*A lei esteve em vigor desde a partir de 1955 (até dez anos
depois).

the law was in force since to start of 1955 (until ten years
after)

3.6. Até (a)

Phrases with até (a) (‘until’,
‘by’) define location intervals by fixing their upper bound via
(nominal or situational) complements. They occur grammatically in a bigger
number of nominal contexts than the other phrases analysed so far in this
section. In fact, they may occur: somewhat marginally, and with no corpora
examples, in subject position – cf. (74); grammatically, with time
hypernyms – cf. (75) –, after some argumental prepositions –
cf. (76) –, and in nominal modifiers/appositives headed by
de – cf. (77) (cf. also section 3.8 below):

Of course, the fact that até-phrases can grammatically
occur in the nominal contexts just mentioned raises the issue of whether this
preposition should rather be classified as a regular head of time-denoting
expressions (and not as a genuine locating connective). I will leave this issue
open, but note, however, that unlike e.g. antes-phrases, which
may be used after desde, até-phrases never occur as
complements of any other temporal preposition. In fact, none of the connectives
considered as genuinely “locating” in Móia (2000) do – cf. Table 2, in section 3.9. This fact seems to
constitute an important distinguishing property of the class under
consideration.

3.7. De…a/até, desde…até

Finally, phrases with discontinuous connectives like de…
a/até (‘from… to/until’) or
desde… até (‘from… until’),
which define location intervals by fixing both their lower and upper bounds via
their complements, occur in more or less the same nominal contexts as
até-phrases, and, therefore, raise the same issue of
their possible classification as regular heads of time-denoting expressions.
Here are CETEMPúblico examples in subject position, and with time
hypernyms, respectively:

the period since the end of-the years 50 until half of-the
years 60; the period from March to
October

When they occur as complement of argumental prepositions and in nominal
modifiers/appositives, there is normally (or often) elimination of the first
element of the discontinuous connective (which surfaces as ‘X a
Y’):

When the relevant preposition is de (as in (80a) and (81)), the
elimination always occurs for obvious identity reasons (i.e. haplology of the
sequence de de); when it is a different
preposition, as para, elimination often occurs anyway –
cf. (80b); however, a few – perhaps slightly marginal – cases with
explicit de after the argumental preposition
para can be found in CETEMPúblico11:

Comparable constructions exist in English, as witnessed by the following examples
from the Corpus of Contemporary American English: «The quarrel between the
Arabs and the Nubians has lasted since the twelfth
century.» (Analog Science Fiction & Fact, 1999);
«(…) the Holland-O’Connell relationship began prior to 1987 and
lasted until 1993.» (Christian Science Monitor, 2008);
«The moratorium will last while the Obama administration works on
plans to help the housing market (…)» (PBS_NewsHour,
2009); «They’ve spent from January until now
attacking Kenneth Starr.» (ABC_GMA, 1998); «It took
Europeans until the early 18th century to master the
difficulties of a porcellanous clay body and the technology of high-fired
kilns.» (American Craft, 1997).

These constructions raise some formal (compositional) issues. In fact, the
phrases with durative connectives seem to be ambivalent between mere
time-denoting expressions, when used as arguments of durative verbs – as
in (86)–(88) –, and locating expressions (also contributing the
relational locating information), when used adverbially, as in:

the Paulo worked in-this company until 1990 / from 1980 to
1990 / while [he] could

‘Paulo worked in this company {until 1990 / from 1980 to 1990
/ while he could.’

Now, several technical hypotheses can be considered, in order to translate the
semantic contribution of these phrases into a formal language like that of the
Discourse Representation Theory. First, that these phrases are genuinely
ambivalent, sometimes contributing only a referential condition ([DENOTING
EXPRESSION (t)]), as in (86)–(88), sometimes a relational (durative) one
as well ([t ⊆ ev]), as in (89)–(90). Second, in order to avoid
ambivalence, that they are always mere time-denoting expressions, and occur with
a null locating operator Ø, with the durative value of e.g.
throughout, when in adjunct position, as in
(89)–(90); in this analysis (parallel to the one described in section 1,
apropos sentences like (13), but with a null durative, rather than non-durative,
locating connective), they would always contribute merely a referential
condition ([DENOTING EXPRESSION (t)]), with the locating relation ([t ⊆
ev]) triggered by Ø[+DURATIVE] in adjuncts. I will not attempt
to argue for any of these hypotheses here, but leave the issue for further
research.

3.9. Diversity within the class of (temporal) locating connectives in a
nutshell

Table 2 below summarizes the exceptional
possibilities concerning the use of locating connectives in the six nominal or
nominal-like contexts that have been presented before. It shows, in a very
graphic way, the heterogeneous and somewhat unstable syntactic and semantic
behaviour within the class of locating connectives, arguably indicative of
various degrees of grammaticalization, that we have been alluding to.

4. Conclusions

In this paper, I argued that temporal and spatial phrases expressing location need to
be distinguished from those conveying mere temporal or spatial reference, and that
– although a large set of expressions exhibit an ambivalent behaviour (notably
those with prepositional heads such as antes or
dentro) – these two classes (locating vs. referential)
suffice for a comprehensive categorisation of the relevant sequences. The
postulation of null locating prepositions was instrumental in technically
formulating this categorisation. Furthermore, I showed that the two classes are
quite varied in Portuguese, forming subclasses, and exhibiting interesting syntactic
patterns, indicative of linguistic variation and change. Asymmetries between
temporal and spatial referential expressions – which otherwise behave quite
similarly – were observed apropos complex connectives like cima de,
baixo de or trás de, which lack exact temporal
counterparts (though elements like meados de are possible
candidates). Signs of linguistic change were noted in the lack of autonomous value
of the initial preposition (por, para, de, a) of sequences like
por cima de, para trás de, detrás de, and – in
Brazilian Portuguese – atrás de. Signs of anomaly, the
archetypical herald of linguistic change, were found in present-day newspaper
articles regarding the use of the locating preposition durante
(‘during’).

All in all, the use of temporal and spatial prepositions, or preposition-like
connectives, of the locating/referential domain generates an intricate taxonomy in
Portuguese, with subclasses presenting relatively fuzzy or unstable boundaries. The
results of this paper – which attempts to shed some light on previously
unaddressed or not fully understood phenomena – are easy to generalize to
other languages (e.g. in the Romance and Germanic families) where similar
grammatical patterns can be observed.

Notes

1Very similar temporal and spatial phrases may behave differently in this respect.
For instance, temporal essa semana (‘that week’) is
ambivalent, while spatial esse lugar (‘that place’)
is not:

3The status of these expressions as complex prepositions in Contemporary
Portuguese is debatable, and I will not attempt to discuss it here. Note,
however the following: these phrases can occur with or without a definite
article – (os) meados de, (os) finais de –, a fact
that Fagard & Mulder (2007: 45) take
as an indication of a lesser degree of “freezing”. The context where
they more typically behave as connective-like elements is the post-prepositional
position; here, they are often used without the article, though its presence is
also possible (e.g. CETEMPúblico includes 4828 examples of the sequence
em/desde/para meados de vs. only 57 examples of
em/desde/para os meados de). In non-prepositioned positions
(e.g. subject or direct object), where, arguably, they do not behave
prepositionally, the definite article is normally present («A par do
sucesso do termalismo, os meados do século XVIII afirmam o
valor do banho frio.», ext771514-clt-92a-2); «(…) após uma
forte recessão que marcou os meados da década de 80
em Portugal (…).», ext974785-eco-92a-2).

5Apparently, English throughout does not behave as its Portuguese
counterpart ao longo de, since it can occur in nominal contexts
– cf. «Richard Kinderman stops at a conference table on which are
displayed boxes of Brite Star Icicles from throughout the
years.» (Washington Post, 2005, in Corpus of Contemporary American
English).

10Portuguese preposition durante has two homonyms (cf. e.g. Móia 2000, 2010): (i) a locating connective (the type under
consideration in this paper), typically corresponding to English
during, which has time-denoting/situational expressions as
complements; (ii) a duration connective, typically corresponding to English
for, which has predicates of amounts of time as
complements. I analysed the first 200 (of the 135821) uses of
durante in the CETEMPúblico corpus, and the
distribution is as follows: locating connective – 139 uses (69,5%);
duration connective – 61 uses (30,5%).

11Searches with [lema = “prever|marcar|agendar”] yielded 5 results with
preposition elimination – type (80b) – and the same number with the
sequence =”para” “de” – type (82). By far, the
most common way to express the relevant type of information, with lower- and
upper-bounded intervals, is by resorting to time hypernyms (cf. (17) and (79)
above) – or to comparable temporal nouns – in NPs which immediately
follow the preposition para – (para) o
período de X a Y (literally ‘(for) the
period from X to Y’, (para) os dias/anos X
a Y (literally ‘(for) the days/years X to Y’),
(para) a semana de X a Y (literally
‘(for) the week of X to Y’). More than 60 results of these latter
constructions were found in the CETEMPúblico corpus.